A bipartisan group of senators has jumped on board a new clean air bill, but they want to make one thing clear: This is separate from the more controversial and sweeping climate change bill.

“Whether we get [a larger bill] done this year or next year or later on, I support that approach. But at the end of the day, while we’re trying to pass climate change legislation, people are dying, kids are going to the hospital; it is extraordinary,” said co-sponsor Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

The senators say the new bill would cost average Americans only a little less than $2 a month on their electric bills while cutting mercury emissions by 90 percent, sulfur oxide by 80 percent and nitrous oxide by 53 percent from utilities.